The question of wealth caps...
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Ironically, this weirdo is sending his message out on a platform created by a guy that’s now worth billions. This planet just needs less communists like this weirdo.
The problem is that people think "wealth" just means money. Like the amount of wealth in society is just a count of how many dollars there are in society. That's not what wealth is. The vast majority of wealth that exists is in the form of valuable goods and properties: A diamond ring. A car. A house. A business. Anything that can be sold for money is wealth. That's why your net worth is an accounting of everything you own according to its resale value plus whatever cash you have in the bank, rather than just whatever cash you have in the bank. Elon Musk for example. They say he's going to be the first trillionaire. That doesn't mean he has a trillion dollars in the bank. He doesn't. Not even close. That net worth means he owns a trillion dollars worth of stuff - Tesla, SpaceX etc etc.
So where the amount of "wealth" in society is measure of how much valuable stuff there is in society, when Tesla rolls a car off of the assembly line and sells it for $50k, they've literally just created $50k of new wealth and added it to the economy (granted it's a car meaning it'll depreciate in value over time, it's still worth whatever its resale value is at any given moment). Yes, Tesla is going to briefly take $50k of cash out of the economy when they accept payment for it, but most for that $50k is going to go right back out the door as wages for their employees who are in turn going to spend it on something else and so forth. So the amount of money in the economy doesn't change, but the amount of wealth in society goes up by $50k. That happens every time someone manufactures a new car, or builds a new house, or mines a new diamond. New wealth is being created and pumped into the economy by these businesses every day.
The net effect of all of this new wealth being constantly pumped into society is that there's simply more to go around which means the average standard of living increases (even if unevenly for different people). This is the rising tide that lifts all boats and it's the exact reason why capitalism is the most successful system in terms of lifting everyone's standard of living, even where some are permitted to get filthy rich - because wealth is not zero sum when new wealth can be generated out of thin air by anyone with the means and motivation to do it.
So what does this have to do with personal wealth caps: The amount of personal wealth a business owner accumulates for himself is a function of how much new wealth he's generated and pumped into society. He's innovating and creating things people want to buy because he wants to get filthy rich. That is the incentive that motivates all the Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steves Jobs, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison types. They do it to get rich.
So (and this is the important part) by imposing a wealth tax on those entrepreneurs, wherever you draw that line, that's where those entrepreneurs are going to stop innovating, stop making new things people want to buy and in turn stop generating new wealth and pumping it into society. They'll stop doing that because there's no more incentive for them to continue. It's now just a cost with no benefit to them, so they quit. Sure you've stopped one individual from getting any richer, but the real effect is that you've stopped all that new wealth being created and pumped into society which puts a drag on everyone else's standard of living. The gratification you get from knowing that one guy won't get any richer is nothing compared to the economic detriment you've imposed on society by shutting off all that new wealth creation. It's not worth it, and that's why we don't put caps on personal wealth. You just have to accept that it's better for everyone to allow one guy to get filthy rich in order facilitate that rising tide that raises everyone's standard of living than it is to score a petty "fuck you" against that rich guy.
Oh and before anyone suggests lifting all boats by dividing Elons' personal wealth (i.e. all of his business holdings) equally among the people, this has actually been tried before and it doesn't work. That's the literal definition of communism.
Sounds like Trickle-Down Economics to me.
Important jobs have been lost to automation and cheap labour in other countries, corporations are "persons" and have too much influence on government, and low corporate tax rates have allowed their owners to dabble in space travel and buy islands and superyachts instead of re-investing in their businesses.
As long as we live in a crabs-in-a-bucket global economic environment, where there are always countries that will cater to corporations, they will win and the human race will lose.
It's not. I'm explaining how industry literally creates wealth and adds it to the economy. I don't mean by making money for themselves and then maybe spreading it around, I mean by manufacturing items that have a dollar value and adding them to the market. That's how it works. It's not debatable.
Trickle down economics is about cutting taxes to the rich in the hopes that those savings will "trickle down" to the consumer, rather than just be pocketed by the rich. It's basically the idea of the government giving the rich free money in the naive hopes that they'll pass it down to people lower on the economic chain, which makes no sense. It's got nothing to do with what I'm talking about.
People made the same complaints the first time a horse was used to pull a carriage, or a ship was put to sea to trade with the people on the other side of the strait.
Economic freedom means the freedom to compete. That means someone's always going to do better than you. As much as you may want to complain about that, you should consider the alternative.
Marxism is the politics of envy. Communism is what happens when people with that same attitude of "Fuck the rich, why should be allowed to have all that wealth?" get their way. Be very careful what you wish for. The reason your way of life is so much better than a Cuban's or a North Korean's is because economic freedom allows for massive and constant wealth creation, and your boat has been lifted by that rising tide over the decades whether you realize it or not. That is precisely why your way of life is so much better than your Cuban/N.Korean counterpart's. Are you sure you'd want to give all that up and join the North Koreans and the Cubans down there in that impoverished, repressive, communist hellscape just so you can know there's no more rich people living better than you? Are you sure that's worth it?
Denmark and Norway show up on most of the lists of "best places in the world to live". Do you think that they are doing it right? Or maybe I should ask what country or countries are being run the way you think they should.
Maybe.
"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence." Christopher Hitchens. It is not for a defendant to disprove an unproven case, but rather for the claimant to produce sufficient evidence to support its allegation. https://www.stevens-bolton.com/site/insights/articles/asserted-without-evidence-dismissed-without-evidence-hitchens
"Sowell’s economics in a social vacuum is as meaningful as color in the absence of light."
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-sowell/basic-economics/
"I don't have to support my argument. It's the Internet. I can say anything I want."
Fixed that for you.